We painted acid on to the skin side of the sheepskin for 6 days. After this we were not sure whether it was done or not. It was a kind of bluish colour all over and did not seem to be changing. If you use alum for curing apparently it is 'done' when the bluish colour has gone (all the way through), but I couldn't find an equivalent test for knowing when it is done with oxalic acid. We decided to proceed with the next stage and see what happens.
To do this we washed the skin in bicarbonate of soda to neutralise the acid. I rinsed it in the washing machine (on cold) with a cup full of bicarbonate of soda twice and then once with some wool wash.
When the skin came out it seems there must have been a fold in it for the entire time as half the skin was rinsed and half not (I put my tongue on it to feel that it was still acidic in that part - then washed my mouth out very thoroughly - eeergh, perhaps pH paper would have been nicer)
So I put it back in the washing machine again with more bicarbonate of soda. This didn't seem to help, one half still looked different, so I did it AGAIN with the part that seemed rinsed folded in half to try to stop it getting washed even more. Then I soaked it in the bath in a bicarbonate of soda and salt mix before running through the washing machine one more time with wool wash.
It is now on the drying rack drying 'until it stops being slimy', we will then pull and stretch it frequently while it finished drying over a period of a number of days.
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